..."Now, meeting with so many women religious through LCWR, I see conscious evolution in action. They have been evolving the church and the world for hundreds of years through deep gospel living, a mystical presencing, faithfulness in serving unmet needs, solidarity with Earth, building community as "whole-makers," risk-taking for the sake of the mission, genius for cooperative self-governance and decision making, and above all bringing love and hope for the future into the lives of millions. For me, the most vital source ofmeaning of conscious evolution is the Catholic understanding of God and Christ as the source of evolution, as its driving force as well as its direction. As Ilia Delio puts it, we experience in evolution the Emergent Christ and God Ahead... In this view, evolution itself becomes a spiritually motivated labor of love toward a Christ-inspired world, leading toward life ever-evolving beyond this current stage of Homo sapiens sapiens...The key question in our time is, I believe,conscious evolution -- that is, how to evolve consciously as a new whole planetary system. What is required now is many convenings of disciplines, faiths, and understandings to gain for the very first time, a sense of shared human responsibility for the destiny of Earth Life. Our new crises and opportunities require all of us to ask ourselves these questions:What is my unique contribution to the conscious evolution of humanity? What is my greater life purpose? What can I do, small or large to contribute toward a positive future for all? What are the purposes of the heart of Christ?"

[Barbara Marx Hubbard is president of the Foundation for Conscious Evolution.]

Bridget Mary's Response:

Once again the Vatican is the gift that keeps on giving. I never heard the term "conscious evolution" before this latest dustup with Cardinal Mueller and his condemnation of it in the recent dialogue with the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Now I have a new list of books to read and I suspect many others will be reading all about conscious evolution too. This is truly a blessing. Thank you, Cardinal Mueller. Who said that the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the CDF (also known as the modern day Inquisition and scourge of contemporary theologians and women priests supporters,)cannot move the church forward ?

..."It’s a sexist law created by some humans and the call of God trumps that,” Jennifer O’Malley said. O’Malley, a self-proclaimed Catholic priest, holds prayer in a tiny Episcopalian Chapel in Long Beach. “It’s important that everyone participates in the liturgy and everyone has a role,” she said about her small gatherings where everyone sits in a circle...According to Gary Macy, a renowned author on the subject, women were ordained up until the 12th century, but only as leaders in the community.“What you got was a job within the community, and any job you got went through an ordination ceremony,” she said.The definition of ordination changed in the 13th century when the Church made it official barring women from receiving the holy sacrament, according to Macy..."

"Jacqueline Bouvier, whose cultural upbringing was French, fell in
love with Ireland years before she met and fell in love with John F. Kennedy,
the rising star of America's most famous Irish-American family, according to
further revelations in the archive of the late Fr Joseph Leonard, a Vincentian
priest based in Ireland.

The 21 year old wealthy American student first
came to Dublin in August 1950 from Paris where she had completed studies at the
prestigious Sorbonne University. She was accompanied by her step-brother Hugh
"Yusha" Auchinloss, and they contacted Fr Leonard, a family friend, at All
Hallows College in Drumcondra, north Dublin.

Aged 73 and living in
semi-retirement, Fr Leonard, who was a widely travelled former World War One
chaplain and bon viveur, struck up an immediate and unlikely friendship with the
vivacious but self-conscious American woman who confided that she was looking
for a husband.

Virtually acting as her chaperone, Fr Leonard brought
Jackie to the Dublin Horse Show, the Abbey Theatre and Jammet's Restaurant which
was the best place for gourmets to dine, so renowned was it for its French haute
cuisine and Dublin Bay oysters. Jackie also shopped for world famous Waterford
Glass.

Through the U.S. embassy, she met the then Prime Minister, John
A. Costello, who was also a close friend of Fr Leonard."Miss Bouvier who was
full of youthful vivacity and charm, delighted with everything she found din
Ireland. and expressed the hope of coming frequently again," Costello recorded.

In late August Jackie travelled to Scotland, from where she sent her
first letter to Fr Leonard confessing that she was already "miserable at leaving
Ireland" and was "homesick for it"

It would appear that Jackie had
developed a strong crush for Declan Costello, the prime minister's 24 year old
son. Fr Leonard had suggested that Declan, who later became Attorney General in
a Government headed by Liam Cosgrave from 1973-1977, would make a "suitable"
husband.

Declan "sounds like absolute heaven", Jackie chirped to Fr
Leonard.

Cupid, however, was to steer Jackie into the arms of Bostonian
John FitzGerald Kennedy, whom she married on September 12, 1953 in St. Mary's
Church, Newport, Rhode Island, at a Mass celebrated by the Archbishop of Boston,
(later Cardinal) Richard Cushing.

For their wedding anniversary,
Jackie and Jack, visited Ireland in 1955, staying in "a great suite of luxurious
pink rooms" in the Shelbourne Hotel.

Prime Minister Costello was abroad
but delegated his son Declan to host a dinner for the American visitors.

By now, Declan was happily married to Joan Fitzsimons.

However,
Jackie noted a sexual chemistry that attracted her lustful husband to Joan - and
herself to the cultured Declan.

"That night we dined at Jammet's and our
happy marriage was nearly rent asunder because Jack was enchanted by Joan and I
was enchanted with you - but somehow we patched it all up at the movies."

At Fr Leonard's request, Senator and Mrs Kennedy visited All Hallows
where Jack addressed the students of the Irish missionary order.

Writing
to Fr Leonard after their return to America, Jackie wrote: "You will never know
how much our visit meant to both of us - of all the places we've ever been
together that was - always will be - the best. "And why? All because of one
person whom there is no one else like on this earth - you."

Jackie went
on to says that the Irish visit was "a fairytale visit that was too perfect to
be real - to walk back across the green (St Stephen's Green)with you, and to
throw coins into the fountain so that we would be sure to return to
Dublin."

As Michael Parsons wrote in The Irish Times, "They never did
together.""

JOHN COONEY, a former Religious Affairs Correspondent of the
Irish Times and the Irish Independent, is the author of John Charles McQuaid,
Ruler of Catholic Ireland, published by O'Brien Press, Dublin, and Syracuse
University, New York.

"After
feeding the hungry in a Daytona Beach park every weekend for more than a year,
it’s just as easy to imagine Chico and Debbie Jimenez given a ticker-tape parade
as what they actually got: a slew of citations and a permanent ban from the
park.

Chico
and Debbie Jimenez, a husband and wife team, aren’t handing out food in the
Florida heat every Wednesday because of a court order or for a paycheck. They do
it because they believe helping the poor is their religious duty. The pair run a
Christian outreach group, Spreading the Word Without Saying a Word Ministry,
that gives food to the needy every week, pointing to Jesus’ words in Matthew
25:40: “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these
brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me...”

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

"Pope Francis and the women of LCWR share a deeply sacramental understanding of their calling to serve those on the margins of our world. They agree that it is in ministering to the poor, the sick, and the vulnerable that they touch the wounded body of Christ."

..."Where they seem to disagree sharply, however, is in their understanding of religious life as a prophetic life form. When women religious touch the wounded body of Christ in their work, it breaks open their hearts in a way that compels them to ask deeper theological questions. It gives them the eyes to read the signs of the times and recognize the prophets in their midst. It gives them the courage ask bold new spiritual questions.Like most popes before him, Francis sees the church as a prophetic voice to the outside world but is far less enthusiastic about the prophetic voices that cry out for justice inside the church. As he told the International Union of Superiors General last May, women religious should put themselves "in an attitude of adoration and service" and find their "filial expression in fidelity to the magisterium." It is an "absurd dichotomy," he said, to think "of following Jesus outside of the church, of loving Jesus without loving the church."Pope Francis believes women religious should continue to do the work of the church while remaining obedient to the voice of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Women religious, on the other hand, believe their work and their faith demand that they remain radically obedient first and foremost to the voice of God.

What may appear to be a conflict over feminism, culture wars and conscious evolution is, ultimately, a cosmic struggle over whose voice the sisters choose to follow."

Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy became "bitter"
towards God after the combined trauma of the death of her two day-old son
Patrick and the assassination in Dallas of her husband President John F.
Kennedy, both in 1963, she revealed to an Irish priest in correspondence which
is to go for sale by auction in Dublin next month.

The first Lady's
letters to Vincentian priest, Fr Joseph Leonard were discovered only weeks ago
in the archive of the Irish missionary order whose All Hallows College is
situated at Drumcondra on Dublin's northside.

In a four page special
supplement in its May 13th edition The Irish Times newspaper hailed as a world
scope the previously unknown correspondence which it received from Sheppard's
Irish Auction House in Durrow, Co Laois. It is expected to be sold on June 10
for about 1 million euro.

Describing the letters as "extraordinary" and
as having "the quality of a personal diary", the newspaper's deputy editor,
Denis Staunton, wrote that "they may help to rescue Jacqueline Kennedy's memory
from the myth that surrounds it as they reveal in her own words how she
experienced some of the most important events of her life."

The letters
span 14 years from 1950 when she first met Fr Leonard in Dublin to 1964, thirty
years before her death in 1994.

"They are, in effect, her autobiography
for the year 1950-64," said Philip Sheppard.

Jacqueline's crisis of
faith and her struggle to make her peace with a cruel deity and stave off
personal despair are highlighted in two letters from 1964.

In early 1964
she confided to Fr Leonard: "I am so bitter against God."

And in a
follow-up letter, her last to the Irish cleric who died that same year she
confided: "I feel more cruelly every day what I have lost - I always would have
rather lost my life than lost Jack."

Jackie's disillusionment with God
and the mystery of human suffering are in marked contrast to her stoic response
to the birth in 1956 of a stillborn daughter whom she baptised Arabella when JFK
was philandering with a less than bright blonde on a rich friend's yacht in the
Mediterranean.

"Don't think I would ever be bitter to God," she told Fr.
Leonard, observing that she could "see so many good things that come out of this
- how sadness shared brings married people closer together."

A feature of
the correspondence is the pre-tragedy piety of the wealthy Washington socialite
and the elderly Irish priest living in a monastery 3,000 miles away in Dublin.

Much of the correspondence relates to the exchange of pious books on the
lives of saints.

But there are also revealing admission of her loneliness
and her hurt at the infidelities of her hyper-sexed husband.

"It's so
good in a way to write all this down and get it off your chest - because I never
do really talk about it with anyone - but poor you has to read it."

*
JOHN COONEY is a former Religious Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times and
the Irish Independent. He is the biographer of John Charles McQuaid, Ruler of
Catholic Ireland, published by O'Brien Press Dublin and Syracuse University New
York.

Monday, May 12, 2014

https://www.facebook.com/RCWPTorontoWelcome to RCWP Toronto page. Our inaugural Mass will be held on Sunday, June 1, 2014, at 2pm, at Emmanuel-Howard Park United Church in West Toronto. We are an open and inclusive church, where all are welcome.

http://www.noozhawk.com/noozhawk/print/bishop_patricia_fresen_to_speak_women_in_the_church_20140512..."Fresen is an ordained priest and bishop in the international movement known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests. She will give a short history of the RCWP community, the controversy surrounding the beginnings of the movement, and how the women priests’ movement has continued to grow from seven women in 2002 to 180 women worldwide today. She will discuss the issues of equality, the stance of Pope Francis and alienation due to scandals...."

On May 22, 1994, Pope John Paul
II issued an apostolic letter, “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” (“Priestly Ordination”)
which reserved priesthood in the Catholic Church to men only.

"This
teaching that 'women are not fully in the likeness of Jesus' -- qualifying, as
it does, as a theological explanation -- is utterly and demonstrably
heretical,” said Augustinian theologian John Shea in his 2nd letter to U.S.
bishops.

In his
recent book, A Call to Action: Women,
Religion, Violence and Power, President Jimmy Carter, who supports women’s
ordination and women’s equality in all religions, finds it “ironic” that women
are welcomed into many professions “but are deprived of the right to serve Jesus
Christ in positions of leadership” as they did in the early Christian
churches.

Despite 20 years of blatant
discrimination of women and denial of women’s basic human rights as spiritual
equals before God, women priests are serving in priestly ministry. With almost
200 Roman Catholic Women Priests, a renewed priestly ministry is flowering in 10
countries. Catholic worldwide are ready for a new model of church led by women
and men.

On Saturday, May 24, 2014, at
1p.m. four women will be ordained priests and two women will be ordained deacons
in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. The presiding bishop will be
Bridget Mary Meehan of Sarasota, FL. The ceremony will take place at Brecksville
United Church of Christ, 23 Public Square, Brecksville, OH 44141. All are
welcome. The balcony will be reserved as a photo-free zone. A reception will
follow the ceremony in the church hall.

Media are invited to schedule
interviews during the time leading up to the ordination and at 11 a.m. on May
24th at the church. Respectful filming/photo-taking during the
ceremony is acceptable.

The ordinands are theologically
prepared and have many years of experience in ministry.

To Be
Ordained Priests:

Mary Bergan Blanchard of
Albuquerque, NM marybblanchard@hotmail.com 505-857-9288, is a widow, mother, grandmother, teacher,
writer and licensed counselor. Twenty of the 37 years she spent teaching were
with the marginalized and the Early Childhood disadvantaged. After retiring in
New Mexico, she served as a Mental Health Counselor in a Roman Catholic Church
for 20 years.

“Until the Church recognizes
that women are equal to men by allowing them to participate in the sacramental
life of the Church, all women will remain second class citizens, subjects in a
patriarchal society…a dark world indeed. Jesus has called us to be the Light of
the World. I am becoming a priest because I believe it’s time to flick the
switch.”

Mary Collingwood of Boston
Heights, OH mecreg6@yahoo.com 216-408-4657, is a wife, mother
and grandmother who, with her advanced degree in theology, has served for 40
years in church ministry and taught theology on the high school and college
levels. In the parish she was Director of Religious Education, Coordinator for
Marriage Preparation and Pastoral Minister. On the diocesan level she was an
administrator and served on various boards and councils, an activist for church
reform.

“Women are being called by the
Holy Spirit to image the Divine Feminine through ordained priestly ministry
thereby restoring the wholeness of God’s presence in our Church. Personally,
this entails ordination and embracing circle leadership as an egalitarian model
of decision-making within Roman Catholic communities. It is truly right and just
for me to live this Spirit-led change in solidarity with the People of God by
serving communities of faith while supporting my sisters in ordained
ministry.”

Irene C. Scaramazza of
Columbus, OH revdrirene@yahoo.com 614-357-0626, has advanced
degrees in theology, pastoral counseling and family therapy. She is currently
working as a hospice chaplain having completed her Provisional Board Chaplaincy
Certification.

“I am being ordained a priest
because God continues to call me to deeper union with Godself. That union is
lived out in service to others. For me, ministry has always involved an
immersing of myself in the life of the people I have been sent to serve and
together discovering our Living God.”

Marianne Therese Smyth of
Silver Spring, MD mysmyth@comcast.net 240-444-0781, has worked nearly 35 years in Montgomery
County Public Schools and 25 years as a para-educator with special needs
students. She completed a theological certificate program and serves the Living
Water Inclusive Community in Catonsville, MD and has a Masters of Education in
counseling.

“I am becoming a priest because
God asked. God’s inclusive love cannot be expressed or shared from a strictly
male point of view. That was not the message of Jesus. My love is hospice
ministry and I will be expanding into bereavement work and healing modalities
such as Reiki.”

To Be Ordained
Deacons:

Barbara Billey of Windsor,
Ontario, Canada bbilley@jet2.net 519-735-3943, has been married
for 32 years and has extensive experience in a variety of professional and
volunteer capacities from wellness educator and health care administrator to
retreat facilitator and dancer. She is currently a counselor and art therapist.
She is engaged in theological study and has a particular interest in women’s
spirituality and a passion for integrating sacred arts in liturgy.

Susan Marie Guzik of
Eastlake, OH msguzik@aol.com
440-477-5962, is a widow, mother and grandmother. After her theological studies,
she received certification as a Lay Ecclesial Minister in the Diocese of
Cleveland. She has volunteered in the Diocese as a pastoral minister and has
been an active pastoral leader in her parish. For the past 15 years she has been
part of the leadership team in the Stephen Ministry program at St. Mary
Magdalene Parish in Willowick, OH and for the past seven years served as their
Director/Advisor.

"...I want to see change, I'm hopeful for change, and that's why I'm in the commission," she says.Collins says she knows there are those that think this is simply public relations "window dressing" and that no survivor should be taking part. She says she understands that, but feels this is a unique opportunity for critics of the abuse crisis in the Catholic Church."I still think it is very important for a survivor to take the opportunity to go in there and say all of those things from the inside."

..."Vallely said that the pope was allowing the liberal German Cardinal Walter Kasper to make speeches on changing the rules to allow divorced Catholics to take Communion at the same time he’s allowing conservatives to oppose the same thing. He chose a liberal pope for sainthood to balance the conservative, pedophile-shielding pope.

“The thing he really hates is the way the papacy used to work like a medieval monarchy,” Vallely said. “He wants the church to reach decisions slowly, by conversations within the church. He wants to hear all the different voices. He’s letting a thousand flowers bloom.”

Or not. Women, gays and dissident Catholics who had fresh hope are going to have to face the reality that while this pope is a huge improvement on the last, the intolerance is still there.

We are still going to be discriminated against, but with a smile instead of a frown. Maybe a frown is more honest."

Bridget Mary's Response: Pope Francis should reign in the CDF, specifically the Cardinal Mueller whose his oppressive tactics reflect a modern day Inquisition! Mueller's attack on the Leadership Conference of Women Religious is another example of patriarchy run amok in the institutional church. Catholics are fed up with sexism in our church. While Cardinal Kasper supports feminist theologians and the U.S. nuns group, Cardinal Mueller condemns both. Which way, dear Francis are you going here? We are getting mixed signals. It is my prayer and hope that you clearly affirm the full equality of women in the church, take positive steps to appoint women in top leadership roles in the Vatican and open a path of dialogue with Roman Catholic Women Priests and our supporters.A first step of good will would be the removal of the extreme punishment of excommunication. Pedophiles have not been excommunicated, why are women serving God's people in a renewed priestly ministry? May we see a new face of Christ's inclusive love in your papacy, Pope Francis! Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org

Just as happens in movie films, canonisations produce a word picture of a
new saint with a slogan worthy of Hollywood. In his homily on Sunday
April 27 at the twin ceremony canonising Popes John XXIII and John Paul
II, Pope Francis I described them, respectively, as 'the pope of
exquisite openness¹ and 'the pope of the family.¹ The common bond shared
by the rugged peasant-diplomat from Bergamo, Angelo Roncalli, and the
ubiquitous Slav crowd-puller from Poland, Karol Wojtyla, was how as
towering figures of the twentieth centurythey addressed 'courageously¹
the issues of the day which confronted their pontificates. This double-billing, however, could not conceal the political dimension
that united them in acclaimed sanctity. ­John XXIII, the Pope who opened
the windows of Tridentine Catholicism to change and reform, and John
Paul II who with authoritarian firmness pursued a restoration policy
which was continued by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, who as pope
emeritus had a place of honour at the unique ceremony of the four
popes. Recognised already as a super-star of the contemporary world, the
first Argentine to occupy the petrine throne enhanced his phenomenal
personal popularity since his election almost 14 months ago by
signalling to theworld's 1.2 billion Catholics that the broad church
which he envisions has an inclusive place for two such contrasting
leaders. Their joint canonisation was a significant expression of
synthesis representing how Francis sees in the different roles of both
men a fundamental unity of purpose and shared values consistent with his
own calls for a transparent church embracing simplicity, poverty and
evangelical missionary fervour. 'They were priests, bishops and popes of
the 20th century,¹ Francis told the estimated 800,000 pilgrims mostly
from Poland as well as the many more viewerswho watched the proceedings
on television. 'They lived through the tragic events of that century,
but they were not overwhelmed by them. For them, God was more powerful;
faith was more powerful.' Journalist Jim Yardley, In the International
Herald Tribune, noted that the canonisation ceremony offered Francis 'a
stage to underscore his world agenda of trying to bring together
different Catholic factions as he prepares for twomajor meetings in
which prelates are expected to address some of the most contentious
social issues facing the church.¹ This was a reference to next October's
Extraordinary Synod on the family which aims to reach conclusions at a
second assembly next year, and the Council of Eight Cardinals charged
with reform of the Roman Curia. 1. John Cooney, Francis¹s Ecumenical
Project ­ collegial papal reform, Doctrine and Life, May-June,
2013. In the days leading up to the ceremony Vatican officials sought to
supercede the political sub-text with a religious message, namely, that
by canonising the pope of change and the pope of restoration together
the liberal andconservative constituencies within the church would work
together more harmoniously in future. This is a goal easier expounded
than achieved, as I observed at the Friday April 24 midday press
briefing in the Salla Stampa on the Via della Concilizione, where
Fathers Federico Lombardi, Francis Rostica and Manuel Dorantes beamed
like anchor men on a celebrity television show at which the guest
speaker, Dr Joaquin Navarro-Valls, the former Vatican spokesman and
member of Opus Dei, regaled journalists at length with fond, sometimes
funny and insightful stories of what it was like working with JP2. It
took almost an hour and a half of beatific memories before journalists
were invited to ask questions. This brought the conference back to earth
as several relevant ones were fired about the tardiness of Pope John
Paul II in tackling the clerical paedophile scandals and his personal
patronage and protection of the disgraced late Fr Marcial Maciel, the
Mexican founder of the Legionariesof Christ. In unison the Vatican
apologists insisted that Pope John Paul, by then struggling with the
infirmities of age, authorised the inquiry which under Pope Benedict led
to Maciel's being disgraced and confined to a monastery. Navarro-Valls
revealed how he raised the question of Maciel¹s standing with Pope
Benedict on his first day as pope and of how the formerCardinal Joseph
Ratzinger who had led the investigation as Prefect of the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith had decided to handle the matter head on.
Just as it seemed that the earlier jollity might vanish in furtherquestioning about the untimeliness of canonising John Paul, a reliable
Italian journalist prompted Navarro-Valls to recall at what moment did
he realise he> was working for a saint!> While recognising the
santo subito acclaim of the crowd when John Paul died in April 2005 ­
and of how Francis decided on his own authority as current pope to
canonise John XXIII on the basis of one miracle only ­I found myself
lessengaged in the canonisation process than I had been at the conclave
of March 2013 which elected Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires. 2.
Doctrine and Life, April 2013.Our contemporary understanding of
a saint is that of a person whose lifestyle is inspired by a lifetime of
virtue, ethics, compassion, solidarity and community. In spite of the
jubilant wandering gruppo after gruppo of Poles who took over Rome¹s
shrines, streets and trattoria, I felt strong reservations about
Wojtyla¹s canonisation. A church historian told me of how as late as
2003 he attended a meeting of newly ordained priests at which John

Paul specifically urged them to model their priesthood on Maciel. An Anglican
theologian who is 'an honorary Jesuit, Noel Coghlan, contends that JP2's
confrontations with those whose views he found difficult to accept ­
such as Hans Kung, Edward Schillebeeckx and the Jesuits under Pedro
Arrupe - raises grave questions about his role as a model of a way of
life. During my six day stay in Rome I re-read an interview which I did
back in 1992 with Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens, then 87, at his convent
retirement home in the Brussels suburb of Stuyvenburgh ahead of the
English language publication by Veritas of his book, Memories and Hopes.
Referring to a book, Making Saints, by Kenneth L. Woodward which
highlighted John Paul's 'factory¹ approach to canonisations, Suenens
said that in in his own lifetime he had met six or seven persons who
everyone knew were saints. He mentioned Mother Teresa of Calcutta,
Archbishop Dom Helder Camara of Recife and the Founder of the Legion of
Mary, Frank Duff. It remains a matter of curiosity to me that the Belgian primate did not include his hero John XXIII and that a precondition
of the interview was that I 'leave alone¹ matters of controversy
surrounding John Paul¹s pontificate. 3. John Cooney, Cardinal Suenens
Remembers, Doctrine and Life, April 1992. Said Cardinal Suenens:
'But I say to everyone: "Be a saint but do not try to be canonised." We
should revise completely the procedures for canonisation.¹ Despite these
niggling doubts that Francis was making his first mistake withthe twin
canonisation, and recalling the many extraordinary people including myparents May Clark and Francis Cooney who are among Cardinal Suenens¹s
uncanonised saints, I nonetheless felt an exhilaration that I was attending the
church's solemn conferral of sainthood on two popes I had seen ­ John
XXIII in audience in 1962 ahead of the opening of the Second Vatican
Council and being introduced to John Paul by the late Cardinal Tomas
O'Fiaich and Jim Cantwell at the Pontifical Irish College in January
1980 just months after his visit to Ireland. Such was were the numbers
of pious Poles in Rome that on the big day I could not get through the
barriers closing off St Peter¹s Square and had to find a spot in a
ristorante on the Piazza Risorgimento where for a five euro café Americano (double the usual price) I was able to follow the ceremony ontelevision. While I might have watched the ceremony morecomfortably and
concisely on SKY television at home in Dublin, I had come to Rome with
the added intention of gauging the reformist mood in Rome in the run-up
to October's Synod. In the days after the canonisations, there were meetings of three important bodies established by Pope Francis: the Council
of Cardinals (plus Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin) which is
mapping out an overhaul of the Roman Curia under the chairmanship of
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Madriaga, who appeared to be enjoying his new
found celebrity satus and was to be seen conversing with well wishers
without his canonical gear in the Borgo Pio; the Council for the Economy
which under Australian CardinalGeorge Pell is mandated by Francis to
come up with economic policies that will introduce best financial
practices for the Holy See; and, particularly the> Commission for the
Protection of Minors chaired by Boston Cardinal SeanO'Malley, on which
Irish woman Marie Collins serves.At the end of the commission's initial
three day meeting, Cardinal O'Malley said it would recommend the adoption by
Francis of concrete rules to hold bishops accountable if they fail to
report suspected cases of child abuse. Some new names will be to the commission
which will be addressed by Francis at its next meeting. Despite O'Malley's
bravado which runs contrary to the declared position of the Italian ERpiscopal
Conference, I detected a lot of uncertainty in the Vatican corridors of power
about what new dispensation might emerge from all the groups. > That
Francis will have to move quickly and resolutely was hinted at by Archbishop George Ganswein, now head of the papal household and former personal secretary to Pope Benedict, who recently told German television
that Francis is 'not everyone¹s darling¹. 4. The Tablet, p. 33, April
20, 2014. As if on cue to remind liberati that the old guard has not
gone away, Cardinal Mueller, the German head of the Congregation of the
Doctrine of the Faith, was still bent on correcting 'radical feminist¹
tendancies among American nuns. (Mueller¹s scolding tone belies hopes of
a more humane treatment by the doctrinal congregation with the welcome
news of the lifting of sanctions onsilenced Irish Marist priest, Fr
Sean Fagan.) Speaking to Religion News Service, Cardinal Walter Kasper,
'the pope¹s theologian¹ sidestepped Mueller by observing that fresh
criticism of American nuns was typical of 'the narrower¹ view that of
officials of the Roman Curiatend to take. More scathingly on her
website the County Laois-born Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the Roman
Catholic Women Priests movement, cited the old Irish song, 'Will they
ever learn, no they will never learn... ' adding:Cardinal Mueller is taking
the Leadership Conference of Women Religious to task for failing to get
permission from the Vatican for their speakers and awards. They decided
to give Sister Elizabeth Johnson, a prominent feminist theologian, the 2014
Outstanding Leadership Award. Imagine, that in this day and age, nuns do
not want to ask Vatican permission to run their own agenda. Father, may
we please, pretty please invite --------- as a speaker?¹ 5.`Bridget
Mary's Blog, May 5, 2014. This kind of crude censorship recalls for me
how back in 1967 as secretary of the Catholic Society at Glasgow
University I was required by Archbishop James Donald Scanlan to submit
for his approval a draft list of prospective speakers, a practice which
was ended in 1968, the year of student revolutions throughout
Europe. According to the Archbishop of Dublin and former Vatican
diplomat, Diarmuid Martin, the ordination of women is 'not on the table at the
moment¹, though he noted that Brazilian Bishop Erwin Krautler has been
reported as saying that Francis is open to ordaining married male men,
viri probati. 6. The Tablet, Martin open to married priests, April 26,
2014. And in their response to a Vatican survey ahead of the October Synod,
Archbishop Martin and the Irish Episcopal Conference have acknowledged that the
church¹s teaching on marriage and family life is disconnected from the real life
experience of many Irish Catholics. Many respondents expressed
'particular difficulties¹ with the teachings on extra-marital sex and
cohabitation by unmarried couples, divorce and remarriage, family
planning, assisted human reproduction and homosexuality. 7. Sarah
MacDonald, Church teaching out of sync with Irish life, survey finds,
The Tablet, March 22, 2014.Furthermore, Ireland's Prime Minister, Enda
Kenny,who attended the canonisation ceremony and issued Francis with an
invitation to visit Ireland, went out of his way to heal recent rows with the
Holy See by asserting that with the advent of Francis a situation now existed
where the Irish churchwants to deal with the scandals of the past 'in
an upfront and open way¹. ­The the Irish embassy to the Holy See is
reopening under diplomat Emma Madigan ­ 8. Paddy Agnew and Patsy
McGarry, Church-State bond stronger, says Kenny, The Irish Times, Monday
April 28, 2014. In spite of these optimistic noises from the upper echelons
of church and state in Ireland, the reality is that for at least the past two
decades opinion polls have shown consistently that the majority of Irish
Catholics want women priests. The time has arrived for a full public to
ensure that women are not the losers in future reforms in Ireland and they are
admitted to the altars and pulpits as priests.

John Cooney is a
former Religious Affairs Correspondent of the Irish Times and the Irish
Independent. He is the biographer of John Charles McQuaid, Ruler of Catholic
Ireland.